Welcome back to Haul of Fame, the weekly beauty roundup of new products, new ideas and another summer smoothie launch.

Included in today’s issue: Elizabeth Arden, Em Beauty, Fig. 1, Garnier, Glossier, Goop, Moon Juice, Nature Spell, Peter Thomas Roth, Prequel, Rituel de Fille, Topicals, Victoria Beckham Beauty, Viktor + Rolf, YSE Beauty and a Missouri rapper’s skincare coup.

But first: Six months ago, creative-director-turned-newsletter-author Jess Graves started a group chat with a bunch of strangers. It was the Love List Chat, an outgrowth of her Substack newsletter, The Love List. One of the platform’s most popular shopping gurus, Graves is the rare Substack-er that gets a front-row seat to the Khaite fashion show. Retail guru Mickey Drexler recently hired her to curate a room full of cool girls for his line Alex Mills.

But the Love List Chat — lovingly called LLC by some fans — often boasts more chatter about face creams than clothes. Scroll through the space, and you’ll see hundreds of questions about the effectiveness of Augustinus Bader, the pain threshold of Botox and the colour payoff of Huda Beauty. “The chat function really pushed us to include more beauty content,” said Graves, who tested the waters with a review of Westman Atelier’s $300 vitamin c serum in March, after dozens of readers asked about it. “But most of the time, I don’t even have to say anything. The readers just talk to each other, and it lets us see what people’s needs are, and what they want to shop for, and what kinds of products they haven’t found yet,” she said.

In that way, Substack’s chat function echoes the 2010 comments section for Into the Gloss, which founder Emily Weiss culled into a starter pack of Glossier’s most-wanted products. Man Repeller and Julie Schott’s beauty reviews for XO Jane (yes, that Julie Schott) had a similar galvanising effect on the internet’s beauty community.

“People do miss the OG vibe of Into the Gloss, and other spaces where they could trade beauty tips and almost ‘spy’ on each others’ beauty routines,” said Graves. “Substack Chat is really giving it back to them.”

In April, the Love List announced a permanent beauty vertical. Today, Graves estimates that 40 percent of her paid partnerships, which most recently include Inn Beauty Project, are from beauty alone. “We have another one coming up with Ami Colé that I’m so excited about,” she said. “We have readers of all different skin tones, and they’ll talk about their favourite foundations in the chat. I can’t tell you how many people with melanated skin have said, ‘Yes, Ami Colé. This is the one.’ People are confirming the quality is there.”

Helping to steer chats into cash is Sophie Krakoff, a former Shiseido executive (and yes, daughter of fashion designer Reed) who now helms the consulting firm and digital agency Friends of the House. Since January, Krakoff has advised Graves and several other Substack moguls on their revenue streams.

“Sophie said to me, ‘Quite frankly, beauty brands have bigger budgets than fashion labels. Add a beauty vertical.’ We did. And now I have a focus group anytime a reader, or even a friend, has questions about a beauty product. It’s become a real driving force.”

Skincare

YSE Beauty, the brand by Molly Sims, introduced a line of eye patches on June 13. Called The Overachievers, the patches claim to brighten the under-eye area with peptides and allantoin.

Meanwhile at the Roots Picnic in Philly, the St. Louis rapper Smino wore Topicals’ bright pink Faded patches on stage. It looked like a subversion of a football player’s under-eye paint, but one focused on Black-owned beauty, rest and renewal instead. It’s fun to see how under-eye patches continue to turn into status accessories.

On June 13, Fig.1 introduced its Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50, which promises no white streaks and a rush of hyaluronic acid. We haven’t had a pond scum moment in a while, but this formula by Dr. Courtney Rubin does have “enzymes derived from sea algae to help accelerate the repair of UV damage.”

Elizabeth Arden has a new skincare launch, and its PR email put it more brilliantly — and more strangely — than I ever could: “June 17th will be the 169th day of 2024. It’s also the 30th anniversary of OJ Simpson’s infamous slow-speed chase, Take Your Cat to Work Day and the launch of the newest skincare innovation from Elizabeth Arden’s award-winning cosmeceutical collection — Prevage.”

Peter Thomas Roth has cast Kyle Richards and her daughter, 28-year-old Alexia Umansky, as models. Starting June 20, they’re fronting the brand’s Water Drench Hyaluronic Cloud Cream. It’s actually a very sweet campaign, and echoes Lisa Rinna and Amelia Gray’s recent Marc Jacobs ads.

Prequel’s Multi-Quench Plumping Hydration Serum hit shelves on June 20. It has dual weight polyglutamic acid, glycerin, osmolytes and ectoin, which is also the amino acid in Grown Alchemist’s new stuff.

Oak Essentials’ new Renew Face Polish debuted on June 20. The brand expanded to Nordstrom at the beginning of this month, so you can buy the complexion scrub alongside your Skims bras.

Makeup

Goop introduced its new “clean” mascara on June 17. The formula is reportedly great, but there’s something unintentionally lol about launching mascara during a heat wave, when it’s likely to melt off. Of course, if you own the kind of ocean-adjacent real estate portfolio that the average Goop customer claims to, this won’t be your problem.

KVD Beauty launched Tattoo Liner 2.0 on June 16. It promises smoother lines and zero smudging. I haven’t tried it yet, but I recently switched my allegiance from Glossier’s liquid liner, which is excellent, to Em Cosmetics’ version, which is beyond. The “flick” has never been easier, at least for me.

Nu Skin’s Colour Peptide Pout gloss unrolled on June 17. It’s a super-shiny formula, and its before-and-after pictures actually do show a visibly plumper lip, which is… a little shocking? Will test and report back.

Charlotte Tilbury keeps adding to her empire. On June 20, she unveiled her first foundation stick, called Unreal Skin Sheer Glow Tint, along with a lip and cheek set called Beautiful Skin Island Glow.

Glossier’s limited-edition Ultralip shades, Apricot and Deco, made their retail debut on June 18. The brand still hasn’t responded to social media claims that the product’s caps keep falling off, but it did release a very cute claw clip and comb for post-pool hair maintenance.

Rituel de Fille’s Creature of Light, an illuminating serum, launched exclusively at Credo on June 18.. It’s like a moisturiser-highlighter hybrid, and comes in four shades of shimmer.

Victoria Beckham Beauty’s new FeatherFix Brow Gel hit shelves on June 18. It comes in six shades (including clear) and promises a gentle colour deposit, plus 24-hour hold. The brand says Victoria “personally tested [it] during frenetic fashion week fittings,” and while some marketing is BS, I can confirm that Beckham is indeed her own guinea pig. Several years ago, I witnessed her applying a prototype eyeliner backstage in London. The new product is $34, which is expensive, and probably the point.

Hair Care

More evidence that the next skincare is “scalp care”: On June 21, Nature Spell dropped two new formulas — an oily scalp tonic and a flaky, dry scalp one — loaded with botanicals we’d normally see in a facial product, including witch hazel, tiger grass and hyaluronic acid.

Garnier has added Dimitris Giannetos to its stable of celebrity hairstylists. He’s best known for working with Megan Fox, and for his cheekbones, which could probably cut the hair he’s working on.

Fragrance

Viktor + Rolf’s Flowerbomb Tiger Lily exploded on June 17. It has top notes of coconut milk and mango, which makes it sound like the most blissful breakfast bowl ever.

AND FINALLY

More smoothie news! Moon Juice has made a lush Matcha Colada with Mister Preda called The Bratty Shake. It has “naked mini dew and rhodiola for hydration, energy and mood” and retails for $16.50 ($3 per sale goes to the Los Angeles LGBT Center). If you can get the smoothie, amazing. If you can’t and would like to directly donate $16.50 to the Center, click here.